The evidence is out that to reap the full benefits that a diverse workforce presents, employers have to work on building inclusion. A key activity in any diversity and inclusion strategy is training. But how do you pick a quality provider? 

The following tool is designed to guide you through a conversation with a prospective cultural diversity training provider with key questions and responses you would be looking for. The more responses you can tick off the better.

Cultural diversity training for the purpose of this tool refers to training that supports people to work with a diverse range of cultures in a responsive way rather than cultural awareness which generally refers to training that encourages learning about a specific culture or cultures.

Note: The tool is designed for identifying a training provider who delivers cultural diversity training however some of it could be adjusted to apply to other diversity inclusion training.

1. Why do you/your organisation deliver this training?

• Commitment to supporting equity and inclusion more broadly
• Values driven and shows alignment with your organisation
• Desire to share their learnings

2. Why do you think diversity training is important for an organisation?

• It demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to equity and potentially aligns with the organisational values and fulfils obligations to society as outlined in law.
• There is a strong business case for inclusion as it has benefits for the organisation, the workforce and the customers/clients (see Diversity Council Australia’s Inclusion@Work Index to understand benefits for the business and employees that the training provider should be speaking to).

3. What do you mean by “….”? (insert terminology the training provider is using e.g. cultural responsiveness, cultural competence, cultural awareness)

• There is a focus on increasing self-awareness and using self-reflection
• Views culture as universal i.e. everyone has it
• Speaks to valuing diverse thought and the benefits it brings
• Acknowledges diversity within diversity and concepts of intersectionality
• Explores power and privilege that is afforded by systems and structures surrounding us and how awareness of it can lead to equity and inclusion
• Examines unconscious bias, but stresses that being aware of one’s bias is only the first step, and that meaningful change requires action
• Recognises racism as a barrier to inclusion and is committed to principles of anti-racism, seeking to deepen an understanding of racism at the interpersonal, institutional and systemic level
• Recognises the unique position and experiences of First Nations people in Australia and advocates the necessity of additional training led by First Nations people
• Provides additional resources to support long-term, whole of organisation change

4. Tell me about your facilitators and what are their qualities/skills

• Ability to facilitate safe, respectfully curious and transformative conversations
• Subject matter expertise
• Personal commitment to equity and inclusion
• Flexible and learner focussed
• Lived experience of coming from a migrant, refugee or First Nations background and/or working in culturally diverse workplaces
• Pursues ongoing professional development
• Holds qualifications both formal and/or experience related
• Experience in face-to-face and online training

5. What methods of delivery do you use?

• Interactive & engaging through the use of diverse delivery methods such as presentation, discussion, group work, case scenarios, activities, videos
• Practical application through case studies, intra-group members and facilitator lived experience examples, resources and tools
• Based in their experience as well as research evidence
• Face-to-face and online training
• Consideration is given to accessible learning for people with diverse needs and who experience barriers to access e.g. closed captions, electronic readable versions of materials

6. Tell me why you/your organisation is positioned to deliver this training?

• Training is grounded in experience of delivering services successfully to culturally diverse people and communities
• Commitment to the training for their own workforce
• Demonstration of recruiting and retaining a culturally diverse workforce
• Training is constantly evaluated and reviewed to maintain quality and relevance
• Positive evaluation results ideally collected pre- and post- training
• Able to provide customer testimonials

This tool has been designed by Settlement Services International (SSI) Diversity Training and is based on our lived experience both as a consumer and provider of diversity training as well as our industry knowledge. SSI recommends that training be supported within an organisational diversity and inclusion strategy to have maximum impact.

Suggested reading:

Diversity Council Australia (DCA) Inclusion Directory Network for potential training providers https://www.dca.org.au/inclusion-directory-network

DCA Inclusion@Work Index: Mapping the state of inclusion in the Australian workforce https://www.dca.org.au/research/project/inclusionwork-index-2021-2022

Cultural competence in Australia: A guide. FECCA (2019) http://fecca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Cultural-Competence-in-Australia-A-Guide.pdf

More information is available at https://www.ssi.org.au/.

In May 2021, Settlement Services International (SSI) introduced three (3) days of paid Cultural and Wellbeing Leave for all staff and five (5) days for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues.

Interestingly, the idea was borne out of discussions in line with our reconciliation commitment to provide cultural support for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues beyond the minimum standard of 10 days’ unpaid ceremonial leave. This recognises it is important to provide space and time for people to honour ceremonial and kinship commitments.

SSI has a very diverse workforce with over 50% of our staff born overseas. In 2019, 70% self-identified as being of a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Thus, many of our people may have cultural commitments that fall outside of a calendar of public holidays largely based on a western, Christian-based worldview. It followed that staff from many other cultures may also appreciate cultural leave.

However, not all our staff members come from backgrounds where there are days of cultural significance to observe. Along with diversity, SSI also has a strong commitment to employee wellbeing. Therefore, to make this benefit more inclusive, we were able to add wellbeing as an additional criterion.

Therefore, the leave was created for everyone and is a holistic offering. The start of our procedure reads: “As part of our commitment to diversity, inclusion, community, and wellbeing, SSI provides an organisational benefit of additional leave days to enable our staff to honour the days of cultural significance for them, support community, and take care of their wellbeing.”

Of course, there are practicalities covered too. Wherever possible, any leave planning takes into account operational requirements and the needs of the team and clients, and this is the case for Cultural and Wellbeing Leave too. For part-timers the three or five days are offered on a prorata basis. They are available throughout the calendar year, they do expire, and restart the following calendar year.

Cultural Leave scenario

Hussam would like to take a cultural leave day during Ramadan, however there are several people in Hussam’s team who would also like to take cultural leave to celebrate Ramadan at the same time. Hussam works in a customer facing program and to have multiple people take additional time off would have significant impacts on the team’s ability to deliver the customer service required by his program. Hussam’s manager meets with all the people who wish to take cultural leave in this period, and they agree to share the taking of the leave over the Ramadan period as well as organising that certain staff can take leave on other culturally significant days throughout the year instead.

Wellbeing guidance

This is leave designed to be used by staff members in the way that works for them, their leader and team, and that aligns with operational requirements. It is intentionally broad and can be used for any range of reasons. For instance, as a mental health day, to support gender affirmation, to undertake a wellbeing-related program, to help manage life’s ups and downs.

More information is available at https://www.ssi.org.au/ or https://www.accesscommunity.org.au/.

As an organisation deeply committed to diversity and inclusion, we wanted to attract diverse applicants to DCA who share our values. To do this, DCA includes a statement in all our external job advertisements that specifically encourages people with lived experience of diversity to apply for roles within our organisation and emphasises our organisational commitment to inclusion and flexibility:

DCA is an inclusive employer. We encourage flexible working and aim to create a work environment where all employees are respected, connected, and can contribute, regardless of age, culture, disability, family and caring responsibilities, gender identity, Indigeneity, religion, or sexuality. We strongly encourage applications from people with lived experience of diversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.

Research shows that having a diversity statement in recruitment advertisements can increase diversity of applicants, as well as applications from people who care about diversity, and can even discourage gender-biased job seekers from applying.

However, just having broad statement about valuing diversity isn’t enough. The statement should focus on career opportunities, and any claims about organisational commitment to diversity and inclusion need to be verifiable.

Research has also found that organisations need to be confident that their hiring managers genuinely value cultural diversity in the hiring process as there are some circumstances where diversity statements work against diverse candidates since they don’t “whiten” their resumes and are less likely to be selected for interview.

We think this statement has helped contribute to DCA’s team being more diverse than the broader Australian workforce across a range of diversity dimensions. At our last diversity survey, our team included 7% of staff who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (compared to 1.7% national average), 57% of staff identifying as being in part or whole as from a Non-Main English Speaking Background (39% broader Australian workforce), 41% born overseas (32% broader Australian workforce), and 30% as being a person with a disability (compared to 9%). 

For more information about promoting diversity through recruitment, see:

Recruitment brand equity for unknown employers: Examining the effects of recruitment message claim verifiability and credibility on job pursuit intentions - Collins - - Human Resource Management - Wiley Online Library

Examining the Draw of Diversity: How Diversity Climate Perceptions Affect Job‐Pursuit Intentions - Avery - 2013 - Human Resource Management - Wiley Online Library

Whitened Résumés: Race and Self-Presentation in the Labor Market - Sonia K. Kang, Katherine A. DeCelles, András Tilcsik, Sora Jun, 2016 (sagepub.com)

More Than Public Service: A Field Experiment on Job Advertisements and Diversity in the Police | Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Discouraging gender-biased job seekers by adapting job advertisements | Emerald Insight

More information is available at https://www.dca.org.au/. 

The ABC has established a governance structure to guide and track its approach and ensure top-down accountability for diversity and inclusion outcomes across the Corporation. Under this structure, the ABC’s Managing Director and Leadership Team hold overall responsibility for the Diversity and Inclusion program, with appropriate targets and strategies included in their performance objectives.

As part of its strategic priority the ABC in 2019 created its Diversity & Inclusion Plan, covering a three-year period from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2022. The Plan focuses on five key diversity areas – Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (CALD), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Disability, Gender and LGBTQIA+.

The Plan provides a strategic roadmap to help the ABC develop an inclusive culture throughout the Corporation and was developed after extensive consultation with the ABC divisions and diversity champions.

The Plan is centred around three strategic goals:

• A diverse workforce: To recruit, develop and retain a diverse workforce that reflects the make-up of the Australian community
• An inclusive workplace culture: To foster a workplace culture that is inclusive, collaborative and accountable and supports the talent and diversity of our people
• Inclusive content, products and services: To reflect and represent the diversity of the Australian community in our content, products and the services we provide

The ABC also released its Five-year Plan in June 2020 re-affirming its commitment to its Indigenous, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

More information is available at https://www.abc.net.au/.

UNSW’s Anti-Racism Policy was first written in 1996 and primarily served to inform the university community of the institution’s obligations under anti-discrimination legislation.

In 2020, UNSW’s Division of Equity Diversity and Inclusion hosted a broad consultation with students and staff to inform the University’s priorities on preventing and responding to racism, which indicated strong support for more robust policies and procedures. A formal review process to revise and update the document commenced in late 2020.

A Working Group was convened to oversee the review and chaired by a staff member from the Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The majority of members in the review Working Group were staff and students from culturally diverse and First Nations backgrounds, many of whom had lived experience of racism. The Working Group was chaired by a staff member from a culturally diverse background. The few staff who did not identify as such were included to provide essential expertise (e.g., legal advice) or had significant professional experience supporting students from culturally and linguistically diverse, refugee, migrant or First Nations backgrounds.

The Working Group met four times in 2021. Key outputs from the Working Group included stakeholder identification and analysis, policy implementation plans, and the development of a draft updated policy for consultation. The Working Group sought to update the Anti-Racism Policy both to ensure it continued to be consistent with legislation and to expand the Policy to become a more proactive and progressive document. The updated Policy introduced concepts such as microaggressions, bystander action, and vicarious liability, included more comprehensive definitions of key terms, and advocated strong for the inclusion of diverse perspectives in university teaching and learning.

The consultation draft was open to the university community for consultation for a three-week period. During this time, the Working Group received submissions from students, staff, and alumni with suggested revisions, comments, and critique of the draft. The Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion also directly invited comments on the draft from key stakeholders and promoted the consultation period through student run news channels. The draft was revised based on the feedback received and endorsed by senior university leadership and the Vice-Chancellor for implementation in September 2021.

Challenges included ensuring consistent student participation in the Working Group and review process. Many of the student representatives were unable to attend regular meetings and contributed to the review process remotely or outside of these formal channels. The Working Group sought to be more agile in communications; sharing information, meeting minutes, and draft documents via email and through Microsoft Teams in order to enable participation and consultation with members who were not able to attend formal meetings.

The existence of an Anti-Racism Policy also attracted some criticism from a small number of student clubs, staff, and alumni, who objected to the need for such a policy and the language contained within. Such feedback was minimal –most submissions received during the consultation period were positive– and all formal submissions received a response from the Division to acknowledge their concerns and thanked them for providing feedback through the consultation process.

After the Policy was launched, the Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion supported its implementation with additional communications, including a position statement on anti-racism from senior university leadership.

The Policy has also been integrated into orientation modules for new students from 2022. Plans for monitoring outcomes associated with the Anti-Racism Policy in future include expanding and tracking engagement with anti-racism content in orientation and through ongoing pan-university surveys and evaluation.

More information is available at https://www.unsw.edu.au/.

ACON’s Multicultural Engagement Pan was developed to provide a three-year framework from 2021-2024 to guide the way the organisation engages with and empowers LGBTQ community members and staff from culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse, migrant, and refugee backgrounds, and LGBTQ people of colour. 

The Plan was led and developed by an internal working group of ACON staff who have lived experience as LGBTQ people from culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse, migrant, and refugee backgrounds, and LGBTQ people of colour, under the guidance of an external advisory panel of community health and engagement experts. 

Through collaboration with a research consultant, ACON conducted extensive consultations with over 55 LGBTQ community leaders and members from culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse, migrant and refugee backgrounds, and LGBTQ people of colour, as well as health experts and service providers over a 12-month period. 

The consultations collected qualitative information about the community’s experiences with and perceptions of ACON, the impacts of racism, homophobia and transphobia on their health, and the ways ACON can improve the cultural safety of its programs and service delivery. All findings from the consultations directly informed the development of ACON’s Multicultural Engagement Plan including its goals, guiding principles and focus areas, which is an example of how community can be centred in driving an organisation’s policies and strategies.

The development of ACON’s Multicultural Engagement Plan also demonstrated how an organisation can commit to structural changes that align to the needs of community through a list of recommendations and deliverables that can be measured over a period of time.

More information is available at: https://www.acon.org.au/,

Developing strategies to promote cultural diversity and anti-racism

WoCA’s focus is to:

• Educate: leading to growth opportunities
• Support: leading to creating a sense of belonging and
• Advocate: leading to a stronger community

WoCA’s strategic plan, created in September 2020, outlines a number of organisational commitments including the goal to promote cultural diversity, equity and inclusion. The plan was refreshed in September 2021 based on the results of a national survey that sought to understand the barriers and challenges faced by women of colour in Australian workplaces. This Strategic plan sets out four key objectives detailed below:

Objective 1 - Build and maintain a credible evidence base for Women of Colour Australia’s policies, initiatives, and programs; and utilise evidence to influence decision making. The Workplace Survey highlighted the urgent and critical need for a systemic and structural change in response to the high level of (almost 60% of respondents) incidents of discrimination and racism in Australian workplaces. To achieve this, WoCA has set up a Research and Advocacy Committee with the goal to publish at least one piece of research per year relating to cultural diversity, equity & inclusion and racial equality in the workplace.

Objective 2 - Engage and communicate effectively with women of colour and allies to understand the opportunities and constraints for women of colour in the workplace and in the business space, and leverage data and insights to promote change. WoCA aims to create and implement an intentional and purposeful communications and engagement plan to connect with women of colour and allies across Australia. This would be achieved by consulting and collaborating with at least five allied Australian organisations and businesses per year to share research, data and insights regarding opportunities and constraints for women of colour that would catalyse impactful and tangible progressive change in workplaces.

Objective 3 - Provide access to industry-leading resources that will equip women of colour to succeed in the Australian workplace. WoCA plans to develop and implement a mentorship and an executive leadership program designed by women of colour for women of colour. The main purpose of these programs is to help advance their career development and progress, improve their experiences in ethnocentric workplaces and boardrooms and support and amplify their voices against workplace discrimination and racism. WoCA also aims to implement an entrepreneurship program to equip women of colour to access key business skills, mentors, resources, and funding to grow sustainable businesses with a target of 100+ women of colour completing the program.

Objective 4 - Create an active Women of Colour Australia community that embodies and promotes the organisation’s values and vision to further opportunities, partnerships, and growth. WoCA has a team of volunteers to assist with its purpose. It will participate in two community outreach programs per year, hold two networking events per year and create a digital publishing platform that will champion WoC voices.

To consolidate these objectives, a theme for the year is created which acts as an overarching strategic goal for that year. In 2022, the theme is ‘Access’: gaining access to all types of opportunities for all women of colour. To achieve this, WoCA aims to advocate for access by co-designing and co-building equitable, impactful and sustainable programs and initiatives with and for its community.

More information is available at https://womenofcolour.org.au/.

Aims of the Cultural Inclusion Council

The UQ Cultural Inclusion Council (CIC, The Council) provides a consultative mechanism for developing and implementing inclusion initiatives focused on culturally and linguistically diverse staff across the University of Queensland (UQ).

We aim to:

• foster an environment that is respectful and allows for the empowerment of staff from diverse backgrounds
• establish strong policies in line with legislation that are anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism
• provide resources and programs for the wider UQ community to raise cultural awareness and promote inclusive workplace practices
• develop and maintain an inclusive environment from staff of diverse backgrounds, along with increasing community connection
• devise UQ’s first Cultural And Linguistical Diversity Inclusion Strategy.

Diversity of members and how they are appointed

The staff and student representatives of the Council were selected via an expression of interest process and each commits to a minimum of one year on the Council. Members are purposefully selected to ensure gender equity, seniority balance, student representation, diversity of employment type, diverse representation in terms of demographics, areas of focus and different organisations within the University of Queensland.

There is no fixed number of members, however, it is written into the Terms of Reference that certain organisations within the University are represented, including: The Indigenous Staff Network, Student Services, Workplace Diversity and Inclusion, School of Languages and Culture and others. To help ensure the University’s commitment to intersectionality, we also endeavour to have representation from other diversity committees including the Gender Steering Committee and the Ally Action Committee.

Members are expected to attend all CIC meetings. If a member misses three or more meetings, without a valid reason such as being sick, then they will be at risk of losing their membership on the CIC.

How members are remunerated or have their workloads otherwise adjusted

Members of the Cultural Inclusion Council volunteer their time from within their substantive roles. When they go through the Expression of Interest (EOI) process, they verify that their supervisor is aware of their EOI and has approved. The EOI application makes clear the time commitment and therefore, supervisors should be aware, when agreeing to ‘release’ the staff member to meet the time commitment, that the staff member will be undertaking CIC related work from time to time.

This commitment is recognised in different ways, depending on whether the staff member is Academic or Professional, as Citizenship and Service embedded in the Academic Performance Framework, or via the Recognition and Development Plan process for Professional staff.

Accountability and transparency

The administration of the Council is facilitated through a core Secretariat, made up of Chair, Deputy Chair and Secretary, as well as a standing membership for a representative from Workplace Diversity and Inclusion.

The work of the CIC is overseen through quarterly meetings with an Executive Champion, who is a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee (VCC) and who acts as a conduit between the CIC and the most senior levels of the University.

The CIC, through the Executive Champion, may send matters to the VCC for consideration and endorsement/approval. Matters are also regularly sent to the Senate Committee for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, where the CIC Chair sits as an observer and where the VC is an active member, for noting/information or for endorsement via quarterly reports.

The Council is currently drafting the first ever Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Inclusion Strategy, which will have the above structure built in, as well as a regular reporting mechanism which will further the mutual accountability of the Council and the UQ Community’s commitment to the aims of the Council. In line with the other diversity committees, these reports will be uploaded to the University website and available to both internal and external stakeholders.

Any outputs to date

• An active forum made up of a diverse representation of countries, languages, genders, locations, schools, faculties, and institutes.
• Guiding the work of the Warm Welcome Program, which partners incoming international staff members with members of staff to support the transition to UQ and Australia.
• Events/online ‘hub pages’ to highlight days of significance such as International Anti-Racism/Harmony Day and Refugee Week.
• Providing input into Training: Aside from the mandatory Appropriate Workplace Behaviours training, we also offer online and practical modules on Unconscious Bias, online modules on Culture and Core Inclusion (as well as other Diversity & Inclusion training) and Managing a Diverse Team. 
• Our general cultural and linguistic diversity page, which has several resources.
• Webpage (with resources) on Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences.
• We realised that the Council is made up of experts in cultural and linguistic diversity inclusion, so we have embedded staff development into our meeting agendas and invite one member to give a brief presentation on their area of expertise at each meeting. Where members would like to know more about areas outside of our expertise, the CIC invites other UQ Researchers to present to us.

In process

• A multi-year, multi-stakeholder Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Inclusion Strategy
• Providing input into the UQ Guide to inclusive meetings and committees
• Providing input into the UQ Guide to inclusive events
• UQ Celebrating Cultural Diversity Calendar
• Updating the webpage to be more comprehensive and useful to people outside of the CIC
• Creating a Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Community of Practice on Teams and in person (depending on appetite/capacity for leadership of a face-to-face CoP)

More information is available at https://www.uq.edu.au/.

Founded in 1859, Waverley Council established a strong social justice agenda early on, pursuing strategies in response to concerns such as gentrification, loss of affordable housing, access to quality affordable care, support for vulnerable people and a culturally diverse, cohesive community. The Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) requires Council to represent the diverse needs of the local community, address the health and wellbeing needs of community members and foster community cohesion by encouraging active participation in civic life.

Waverley Council established a Multicultural Advisory Committee (MAC) more than 20 years ago to foster ongoing dialogue, discussion and advocacy in relation to multicultural matters, access and inclusion strategies.

Every two years, Waverley Council calls for applications for the MAC through its newsletter, social media channels, via local networks and by advertising in local media. Applicants are asked to send their resume, outline their interest in joining the MAC and address any selection criteria. Officers make recommendations to Council based on the ability of applicants to meet the criteria and other committee requirements.

The MAC’s quarterly meetings are chaired by the Mayor or the Mayor’s delegate. Waverley Councillors and the Executive Leadership Team are welcome to attend. Relevant Council staff are invited to share information and advice on topics of interest. MAC members use this forum to raise concerns, share ideas, provide feedback and build connections around Council services and community networks. Opportunities also exist for the MAC to contribute to Council’s wider initiatives.

Everyone enjoys coming together face-to-face but more recently the MAC meetings have had to shift online. The Terms of Reference provide a formal governance structure, including notifications, agenda, minimum attendance requirements, recommendations by consensus and minutes which are publicly available following a report to Council.

In the years of 2020 and 2021 years, the MAC was closely involved in the development of Waverley Council’s Cultural Diversity Strategy. This is an important document that outlines Council’s strong commitment to building an inclusive, cohesive and resilient community for people of all cultural backgrounds. The strategy was developed by Council in collaboration with local stakeholders and partners, and was informed by input from the wider Waverley community and industry experts.

The below quotes have been provided by members of the MAC and reflect some of the strengths of the MAC as well as certain areas where the work of the MAC could be strengthened:

I'm proud to belong to the MAC of Waverley Council where I have learnt so many things.

I would like to see MAC consulted on relevant issues even if it means convening ad hoc or short notice meetings.

I feel a profound and sincere sense of gratitude for all the lovely people that I met in MAC.

I would like to see more grassroots partnerships and involvement with local businesses.

The MAC helped me a lot to let me understand the importance of being an active part of a community.

It's taking a long time to implement MAC recommendations, longer than necessary.

It has been pleasing to see MAC membership grow with a broader range of voices in the group.

More information is available at https://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/.

The first step is understanding how racism plays out in the workplace

Conversations about the pay gap for women and gender equality in the workplace are familiar to all Australians. Equally well documented is the toll that the pandemic has had (and is still having) on women’s careers around the country. However, this rhetoric has always been centred around white women. Terms such as intersectionality and “pet to threat” are still new and unfamiliar to most Australians. The lived experiences of women of colour are largely an unknown quantity, invisible to those who are not female and part of a racial minority group.

Women of Colour Australia (WoCA) champions women of colour through education programs, community support initiatives, and advocacy. WoCA’s vision is of girls and women of colour reaching their full potential through equitable opportunities. The key phrase here is equitable opportunities, which implies understanding the complex challenges and barriers, implicit and explicit, that prevent women of colour from excelling in their careers – something largely undocumented in Australia.

In 2020, WoCA conducted its inaugural Women of Colour in the Workplace national survey in partnership with Murdoch University researcher, Dr Catherine Archer ¹. Applying an intersectional lens to gender equality in the workplace provided insight into how gender overlaps with other identities to impact the way oppression and discrimination are experienced.

The survey sought to explore the professional and workplace experiences of women of colour in Australia. A total of 543 women of colour completed the survey. 70 percent of respondents worked full-time and were aged between 25 and 34 years. Seven percent identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, with the remainder spanning heritage from more than 60 different nations. The women reported being employed in more than 250 different roles.

The main purpose of the survey was to explore and understand the role of different issues within the workplace and the effects they have on the experiences of women of colour in a work environment. It focused on identity; the positive and negative experiences of women of colour within the workplace; recognising and addressing barriers to professional advancement; how organisations like WoCA can best advise, support, and train women; and understanding the role of diverse identities in issues faced by women in the workplace.

The survey highlighted women are more likely to work part-time in white collar professional roles. It was illustrated that challenges of racism, tokenism and sexism were prevalent in the workplace, resulting in discriminatory behaviour from colleagues. This included microaggressions, gaslighting and blind spots, especially along generational lines, creating a space where many women did not feel safe, recognised or valued.

It also highlighted that many women of colour have had to work harder and be more direct to get where they are, and their job progressions have been slower than that of their Anglo peers. The lack of women of colour leaders in the workplace has also contributed to issues of isolation and lack of mentorship and sponsorship. Half of the women surveyed felt there were cultural barriers in the workplace that held them back from achieving their goals, particularly in terms of unconscious bias and the perception of white superiority. In the instances where a workplace had diversity and inclusion policies, the survey revealed that they were often not enacted, were only briefly covered in training, or only protected certain groups of people.

WoCA has developed a three-year strategic plan to directly address some of the challenges and barriers that surfaced in the survey. The strategic plan was created by WoCA board members made up of nine diverse women of colour. The leadership of the organisation is culturally rich, racially and ethnically diverse with an intersectional approach to solving systemic issues facing Australia’s women of colour. To address and implement their strategic objectives, WoCA has established seven volunteer committees: volunteer management; research & advocacy; learning & development; mentoring; events; communications & engagement; and fundraising & grants.

The Women of Colour in the Workplace national survey will be undertaken by WoCA annually to measure changes in this space.

More information is available at https://womenofcolour.org.au/.